Twitter celebrates Diwali 2019 with lights on emoji

Users of Twitter's dark mode will be able to watch the flame of the Diya burn brighter in the lights on emoji that accompanies #HappyDiwali.

Indians across the country and the world are in the festive mood with Diwali or Deepavali just around the corner. Every year, Twitter creates a unique emoji to surprise and delight people on Twitter, and this year the platform is allowing those celebrating to control how high the diya’s flame burns during the festival of lights! 

The emoji, which is a diya or oil lamp, when viewed in the light mode will appear with a small flame. However, keeping in line with the spirit of the festival of lights, audiences can have the flame burn brighter by switching over to Twitter’s dark mode. The specially designed emoji will add to the Diwali cheer and illuminate Twitter timelines. 

Twitter’s dark mode consists of two variations, “dim” and “lights out”. The former is already available across Web, iOS and Android, while the latter has been available on Web and iOS, and rolled out on Android this week. “Lights Out” mode can save battery life on those devices with OLED screens, improves readability at night, and also increases accessibility for individuals with specific types of visual impairments. 

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The emoji will be available until the October 29 and will render in eleven languages including Bengali, English, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Punjabi, Odia, Tamil and Telugu allowing a diverse set of people to celebrate #Diwali and join the public conversation.

Here are the hashtags that will make the emoji appear: #শুভদীপাবলি, #Deepavali, #Diwali, #HappyDeepavali, #HappyDiwali, #શુભદિવાળી, #दिवाली, #दीपावली, #शुभदीपावली, #ದೀಪಾವಳಿಹಬ್ಬದಶುಭಾಷಯಗಳು, #ദീപാവലിആശംസകള്‍, #शुभदीपावळी, #ਦਿਵਾਲੀਮੁਬਾਰਕ, #ଶୁଭଦୀପାବଳି, #தீபாவளிநல்வாழ்த்துக்கள் and #దీపావళిశుభాకాంక్షలు.

An important cultural highlight of Diwali is spending time with friends, family and food, which is why in addition to lighting up timelines with its special emoji, Twitter has partnered with publishers in the food space to make Twitter timelines even more delightful. People on Twitter will be able to consume some amazing content from Indian chefs, as they celebrate by Tweeting their favourite festival recipes. 

Top chefs from around the country (and with backgrounds in different Indian cuisines) will share recipes and memories of their favourite savoury and sweet Diwali Tweets. Some of the featured chefs include, Executive Chef of The Bombay Canteen, Thomas Zacharias, celebrity chef and entrepreneur Sanjeev Kapoor, owner of Le15 Patisserie and author Pooja Dhingra, founder of Goila’s Butter Chicken, Saransh Goila, food blogger and author Nandita Iyer, executive chef and co-owner of Masque, Prateek Sadhu and Shipra Khanna, winner of MasterChef India. 

People can Tweet alongside the chefs with #TopChefDiwali, to share their festive favourites add their recipes to the mix. Aficionados can also Tweet these chefs their questions by using the hashtag. 

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NDTV Food has two festive series for Diwali sponsored by Hilton Honors and Expo 2020 Dubai respectively. The first is a cooking series covering the five days of Diwali hosted by Chef Vicky Ratnani exclusively on Twitter, and the second is a series called #HealthifyingDiwali featuring a nutritionist who wants to ensure that we all eat, snack and gift healthier this festive season.

Manish Maheshwari, Managing Director, Twitter India said, "Every festival, Twitter comes alive with joyful conversations, enabling people and businesses to connect with what’s happening — and during Diwali, this is especially true, as Indians across the world Tweet about their celebrations. In line with our tradition of engaging people in this conversation, as well as delighting them with innovations, we have launched lights on diya emoji to represent the joy of the festival of lights.”